Messenger Betting - would anyone ever get convicted?

Messenger Betting - would anyone ever get convicted? Had a conversation with a gaming agent this week about an unrelated event. At the first opening he accusingly asked me if I bet the ticket in question for someone else as if he may have stumbled onto some big conspiracy. Is it realistic to think this law has any chance of holding up on it's own? It's borderline unconstitutional and no other parallel activities are subject to such restrictions. When an uncle back in Iowa tells his nephew to bet $20 on #33 on the roulette table, is that not messenger betting? When you bet a future on the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl at 500/1 for your friend in KC are you guilty of anything other than being buddies with a moron? The cellphone regulation had to be scrapped because it was just not enforceable in the current technological climate. How long before they stop using this dumb reg to harass bettors they are wary of?

what is the actual law? are you saying if someone calls and tells me "I like X, Y, and Z" and I go and bet them i am committing a crime? that's insane!

No, it's a crime if someone tells you to bet X, Y, and Z for them, and you do it.

There are many laws that are rarely enforced except as a matter of degree. In many states, making a bet about a trivia question where the winner pays for dinner is technically against the law. It's rarely enforced, and when it is, it's news and roundly criticized as overreaching. However, if someone is running a full-fledged casino out of their house, then that's a gross violation of illegal gambling statutes and one shouldn't be surprised if that activity is prosecuted. IMHO, it's the same thing with messenger betting. While giving a friend $20 to bet on the Steelers to win the Super Bowl probably violates the messenger betting statute, it's unlikely to be prosecuted if brought to the attention of regulators. However, if you're doing is as or part of a business and regulators find out, that's likely to attract a lot more attention. Do I think the law has a chance of holding up? Yeah, I do. I'm not a fan of it, and IANAL, but I don't see a constitutional issue here, unless you think betting is a form of speech. I think the cell phone regulation was scrapped because the customers it was visibly pissing off were not the folks it was designed to combat. You used to see folks talking on the phone just past the "no cell phone use" sign in the Hilton, most of whom I always assumed were runners, while the folks who actually did use their cell phone in line were people who didn't know about the rule and couldn't imagine why it might exist. My understanding is that it was scrapped because it was ineffective and bad customer service, not that it's unenforceable. Clearly, it was enforceable, you couldn't go 10 minutes in a moderately busy sports book without hearing someone admonished to not use their cell phone.

what about large betting groups or guys who pull their money togeter to bet?

Thats brutal Frank. As if these jackoffs have nothing better to do. Sheeesh.

El Duderino: pretty sure the statute to which you refer imposes only a misdemeanor. Given how difficult it would be to prove the intent of the messenger when placing the bet, and the lack of sex appeal in slapping someone with a misdemeanor, I doubt law enforcement and prosecutors will be focusing on this too much.

[QUOTE=BigFish;46954]El Duderino[/QUOTE] Well I could always send Walter down there to handle it. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhZ72BNReM&feature=related[/url]

Walter is very qualified to handle situations. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=z_VAfVhsvOA[/url]

who remembers runners bust in vegas about 10+ yrs ago? There was a shake down on runners (some of which were B.Walters guys)